The student will be able to:

1. Critically explore the role of land and labor in shaping social, political, and economic relations in the United States.
2. Critically analyze the intersection of race and racism as they relate to class, gender, sexuality, religion, spirituality, national origin, immigration status, ability, tribal citizenship, sovereignty, language, and/or age within communities.
3. Identify and evaluate the various theories that help explain Western expansion in the U.S. and Manifest Destiny.
4. Evaluate the relationship between land, the politics of racialized and gendered labor, and economic and social inequality.
5. Critically review how struggle, resistance, racial and social justice, solidarity, and liberation, as experienced and enacted by Native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, and/or Latina/o/x/é Americans, are relevant to current and structural issues, such as communal, national, international, and transnational politics as, for example, in immigration, reparations, settler-colonialism, multiculturalism, language policies.
6. Describe and actively engage with anti-racist and anti-colonial issues and the practices and movements in Native American, African American, Asian American, and/or Latina/o/x/é communities, to build a just and equitable society.

1. Theories and concepts
   1. Colonialism and slavery
      1. The Middle Passage and transatlantic slave trade
      2. Property and slavery to 1865
   2. Land concepts
      1. Property ownership in the U.S.
         1. ​Nationality Act of 1790 and land​
         2. Citizenship used to exclude
         3. Property ownership, court representation, public employment, and voting
   3. Race and Manifest Destiny
      1. Genocide
      2. Settler colonialism
      3. Western expansion
   4. Labor
      1. Native American servitude and slavery
         1. Labor as servitude
      2. The Reconstruction Amendments
         1. 13th Amendment
         2. 14th Amendment
         3. 15th Amendment
      3. Cult of Domesticity
         1. Gender and labor
         2. Race, gender, and social security
      4. Racial capitalism
         1. ​Legacy of race and labor in the U.S.
      5. Immigration and labor
      6. Labor unions
2. California
   1. Unfree labor in California
      1. Native American slavery and Franciscan missions
         1. Toypurina's story as an example of resistance and liberation to California missions
         2. Indenture Act of 1850
   2. Strangers from a Different Shore: Angel Island
      1. Yellow Peril
      2. 1875 Page Law
      3. 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act
      4. Immigration to California and Angel Island
   3. Incarceration, race, and labor in Los Angeles
      1. The Anti-Vagrancy Act of 1855
         1. Greaser Act
         2. Land loss for Mexicans in California
      2. Chain gang labor
      3. Convict leasing in Southern California
      4. Immigration detention centers
   4. Native American Urban Relocation
   5. Japanese American farms during WWII
   6. Labor and agriculture
      1. The intersectional struggle for the UFW Union
      2. Filipino immigration and labor
      3. Chicano labor in the fields
      4. Agricultural workers unite
      5. Dolores Huerta
      6. Larry Itliong
      7. Cesar Chavez
   7. The 1969 occupation of Alcatraz Island
      1. Native American resistance and self-determination in the S.F. Bay Area
      2. Indians of All Tribes
      3. 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie
         1. Government Surplus Land
      4. LaNada War Jack
      5. Richard Oakes
      6. Legacy of the Indigenous Peoples' Day Sunrise Ceremony
3. Midwest
   1. The fur trade
      1. ​European and Ojibwe trade in Minnesota
   2. Settler colonialism
   3. Blood quantum
   4. Racial politics of allotment
   5. Dispossession among the Ojibwe
   6. The Great Migration
      1. African American labor in Chicago
   7. Chicago factory labor and Mexican American migration
   8. Executive Order 8802
   9. Race, gender, and labor in turn of the century Chicago
   10. Native American environmental activism
       1. Dakota Access Pipeline protests
       2. ​Water protectors and land defenders
4. South/Southeast
   1. Gender and labor during U.S. chattel slavery
   2. Abolitionist movement
   3. Native Americans and African American slaves in the South
   4. Race, marriage, and removal
   5. Latin American migration in the New South
   6. McGirt v. Oklahoma
   7. African American farms in the 21st century
5. Northeast
   1. Slavery in the North
   2. Niagara Movement
      1. W.E.B. DuBois
      2. NAACP
   3. Mohawk Territoriality
   4. Informal economy
      1. Undocumented labor in New York
   5. Staten Island and the first Amazon labor union
6. The Southwest
   1. Empire Zinc union strike
      1. Mexican American zinc miners
      2. Racial hierarchy utilized in mining towns
         1. ​Segregated housing, labor conditions, and wages
      3. Labor organizing for better wages and working conditions
      4. Anti-segregated housing
   2. Race, gender, and citizenship
   3. Labor migration and recruitment
   4. Transnational labor migrations and globalizations
      1. The Bracero Program
      2. U.S. Mexico border
      3. NAFTA
      4. Maquiladoras
      5. USMCA
      6. DACA recipients and employment
7. Pacific Islands
   1. Colonialism and immigration in Hawai'i
   2. Labor in Hawai'i
   3. Military bases in the Hawaiian Islands
      1. BIPOC in the U.S. military
   4. Thirty Meter Telescope protest
   5. Arctic indigenous peoples and climate change
8. Puerto Rico
   1. Foraker Act of 1900
   2. The Great Depression and labor migration
      1. Sugar plantations
      2. Landless laborers
      3. Socioeconomic migration to the U.S. mainland
   3. Military bases in Puerto Rico
   4. Service work, pensions, and bankruptcy
   5. Post-Hurricane Maria

Not applicable.

Critical papers
Class presentations
Reading journals
Documentary film review
Midterm examination
Final examination
Social justice/service learning project

Readings of multidisciplinary text from fields including history, social science, political sciences, law, and cultural studies
Viewing and analyzing various media regarding historical and contemporary issues relating to land and labor
Class discussions on relevant topics
Writing analytical responses to course material
Actively engaging in social justice/service learning
Guest speakers
Field observation and field trips
Collaborative learning and small group exercises
Discussion of course topics and videos in relation to real life examples drawn from students' experiences and observations

Barker, Joanne. Native Acts: Law, Recognition, and Cultural Authenticity. 2011.

Choy, Catherine Ceniza. Asian American Histories of the United States. 2022.

Almaguer, Tomás. Racial Fault Lines: The Historical Origins of White Supremacy in California. 2009.

Hernández, Kelly Lytle. City of Inmates: Conquest, Rebellion, and the Rise of Human Caging in Los Angeles, 1771-1965. 2020.

Ortiz, Paul. An African American and Latinx History of the United States. 2018.

López, Ian Haney. White By Law: The Legal Construction of Race. 2006.

Texts older than five years are considered foundational texts.

Note: Text(s) may be chosen at the instructor's discretion.

1. Reading multidisciplinary texts from fields including ethnic studies, law, psychology, history, social science, political science, literature, and cultural studies
2. Attending ethnic studies cultural events, musical performances, or museum exhibits, and responding in writing
3. Analytical essays on readings
4. Analytical essays on films
5. Journal entries
6. Social justice/service learning projects (e.g., Foothill Research and Service Learning Symposium)
7. Group projects
8. Reflective essays on personal experiences or interviews
9. Community Engagement Assignment: Students volunteer four hours at a local non-profit organization focusing on issues around labor or housing justice. They will submit a letter from the non-profit to confirm the hours they volunteered, then write a 4 page reflection about their experience